Three Branches

The latest issue of MAPP Magazine has been published by graduates of the MAPP Program at the University of Pennsylvania. This edition has more articles on Positive Humanities. It also explores the factors that lead to habit formation.

The latest issue of MAPP Magazine has been published by graduates of the MAPP Program at the University of Pennsylvania. This edition is dedicated to the Positive Humanities.

In recent years, scholars within positive psychology have been adopting a more nuanced view of positive and negative, recognizing that positive qualities can sometimes be harmful and negative mental states can sometimes contribute to human flourishing.

The latest version of the MAPP Magazine is now available with articles about expectations of well-being during trying times, perspectives from Dr. Angela Duckworth on this past pandemic year, and the broad range of capstone topics chosen by the 2020 class of MAPP graduates. We invite you to read and subscribe.

Exploring and applying character strengths can help us improve relationships, buffer against negative feelings, and manage problems as well as enhance our well-being during this challenging time. We offer some simple suggestions for activating different character strengths while dealing with this international pandemic.

We are so excited to have the esteemed author Louisa Jewell as our guest for the first ever PPND webinar. Join us for a three part program: A brief interview, followed by a highpoint from her brand new book, and live questions from the audience.

Ever since Friedman and Roseman’s 1959 study identifying the Type A personality and its link to coronary heart disease, research into the influence of personality factors on health has caught…

Developing our strengths at work, learning how to do more of those things we’re good at and actually enjoy doing, has become a multi-million dollar global industry, but where is it making the most difference?

These researchers ask, “Whose responsibility is happiness?” It does not rest solely on the individual, and it does not emerge solely from the conditions of society. The researchers suggest co-responsibility as the answer: “The idea that happiness emerges as a collective and cooperative endeavor that requires both favorable life conditions and individual effort.”

Like the burgeoning global MAPP programs springing up around the world, the high quality Certificate in Applied Positive Psychology (CAPP) experience leads people toward whole health, well-being, healing, flourishing, and love across all domains of life. CAPP is relatively accessible with more locations being established worldwide. It is helping to bring Martin Seligman’s 2051 moonshot goal to fruition.

Some people might be scared by a thunderstorm while others might be awed. In those moments, the person with the strength of Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence is able to transcend ego and instead be moved to an awareness of the vastness and amazement that the world has to offer. Time slows down. In such moments a person may feel drawn to future opportunities for using this strength.

I highly recommend this book as a source of ideas for enhancing your leadership skills, whether you lead yourself or thousands of people. The many stories of positive outcomes will help you see that you can make a difference by making small changes. Want ideas for your small change? There are more than 70 strategies and practices clearly labeled throughout the book.

The 7^th ECPP in Amsterdam from 1st-4th July was a fabulous opportunity to get up-to-date with the latest positive psychology research and practice. I was struck by how often the conference returned to the theme of connection and, in the widest-possible sense, well-being from a community perspective.

Don’t sit there too long waiting for happiness to appear, or wondering whether now is the right time to do something. Why not take a different approach? Why not act now and reflect afterwards on whether it worked? If it wasn’t quite right, you can change it, and in the meantime you will have learned something about yourself. This way, you can act your way into a new way of being happy.

The Flourishing Center, in partnership with the New York Open Center, is granting a Certification in Applied Positive Psychology (CAPP) through a 6-month program that has been approved by the New York Board of Education. The program covers all the topics that make positive psychology so fascinating, including gratitude, resilience, positive emotions, mindset, flow, strengths, and self-regulation. It also covers topics that are becoming mainstream in positive psychology, such as mindfulness, altruism, spirituality, neuroscience, and physical vitality.

What is humility? Are those high in humility low in self-esteem? How can we moderate humility when it is overused and enhance it when it is underused?

“What can we as a country do to significantly improve the life chances of millions of poor children?” This is the question that reporter Paul Tough asks us to tackle with him in How Children Succeed. This book is passionately written and soundly researched. If Paul Tough is right, and I hope that he is, medical professionals, social workers, educators, and parents can join one another to build communities that help all of our children succeed.

We seem to be working harder and consuming more than ever before, but for all the stuff that comes with 21st century living to make our lives easier, less labor-intensive, and more comfortable, we don’t seem to be much happier. A growing number of people feel anxious and depressed. Can living a simpler life make us happier? The answer is not what you might expect.

I have several hopes in maintaining this annual PPND tradition of giving Positive Psychology Awards to movies made the previous year:

With the boom of nanotechnology, brain implants, and increasingly sophisticated computing and intelligence technologies, we might be seeing a fundamental change in the “human” part of human flourishing. My purpose here is to explore how Positive Psychology might guide the efforts of emerging technologies in a transition to human life beyond biology